Tickets - £20 per person (2 rod
limit). Dates bookable in advance and payment on day of fishing.

Stock – Noted for its specimen
coarse fish with roach exceeding 3lb, chub over 7lb, pike to more
than 25lb, dace over a pound and big perch along with grayling over
3lb and off course plenty of trout.

Conditions – Almost perfect
with the river fining down after recent rain. Overcast and mild with
very little wind and atmospheric pressure rising from 1013mb.

My challenge for
today was to help catch my good friend and customer Alan a fish that
had eluded him his entire angling career, a two pound roach. It’s a
journey that has seen him fish many a venue from the Thames to the
Avon, often with myself close by but sliding the net under such a
fish is like finding a needle in a haystack instantly!

River Farm Fishery
in Hampshire was our closest call with roach to 1lb 12oz yet Alan
stumbled on this venue shortly after its prime and is now just a
shadow of its former self, well as far as roach it is. The week
before Alan had fished the Frome but the tide wasn’t right as well
as the Avon but the minnows were still ravenous, heading to
Scotland’s Lochnaw Castle even crossed his mind yet hitting the
circus waters or joining the high priced syndicates isn’t something
he wants to do. Landing such a fish off the beaten track would be a
dream and if it came from running water, well even better. I’ve
lost sleep trying to fulfil his goal, even tried pre-baiting a secret
water in the hope of falling on a 2lb roach goldmine yet all I could
do was suggest swims and venues that I know do or have done big roach
in the past in the hope that he found himself in the right place at
the right time and experienced one of those rare ‘red-letter’
days.

We had hoped to
fish an exclusive stretch of the river Test but this had fallen
through so I suggested we headed to another stretch, Timsbury, a
fishery with a track record of producing some monster roach in the
past, yet were they still their? It was a shot in the dark but even
if the roach didn’t show plenty of out-of-season trout would keep
our rods bent. Apart from two fly chucking pike anglers we had the
beat to ourselves and I positioned Alan in what use to be the best
roach swim only to see him beaten up by trout after trout. I headed
downstream only to be beaten up by a motionless quivertip! Moving
swims I found a few trout yet felt once again a million miles away
from our target, a monster roach.

At lunchtime I
spoke to the owner who suggested we try a couple of different swims
and assured us that big roach were still around. Alan’s move
resulted in more trout yet I decided to leave my swim alone till dusk
and do some float fishing in the shallows which resulted in numerous
grayling and trout including a brownie that was pushing my personal
best of around 5lb 8oz. An hour before dusk I started to run a float
through my new swim feeding bread mash every cast yet come the time
the float couldn’t be seen no bites had come. I was contemplating a
move, so cast out the feeder and started packing the float rod away
when my attention was bought to the quivertip that had started to
twitch in true trout fashion. Lifting the rod I felt a few head
shakes and assumed that it was another trout yet this fish failed to
shoot all over the place and when it surfaced I was sure that I saw
red fins. Stumbling for the net and with jelly legs and a squeaky bum
I slowly drew the roach over the net and knew that Alan’s dream
was, well unfortunately in my net! It was a close call but two
weighings revealed it was indeed a close call as the needle stopped
smack on two-pounds, a fish of a lifetime but for me I wanted such a
fish in Alan’s net so made him grab his kit and set up in my swim.
An hour passed before the first bite and yes it was a roach but a 1lb
5oz fell somewhat short, yet still a fish to be mighty proud off.

Darkness was well
upon us when the next bite came. I had headed back down stream to
cover different spots and was just returning to see a 4lb chub in his
net. Now I bet he missed a few heartbeats during that fight. Sitting
with him the last cast lasted maybe four casts and our session bought
to a close when once again a sea trout splashed itself through the
swim.

The perfect day
would have been a 4lb chub in my net and a 2lb roach in Alan’s yet
that’s fishing our search goes on, however we are now close, very
close and I’m confident that it wont be long before Alan’s dream
is fulfilled.